Campbellnomics - Nov. 4

Alexander Semin has eight goals and 16 points in 10 games this season. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Ken Campbell
2008-11-04 10:32:00

There's an old axiom in hockey that suggests they don't care how, they care how many. Well, at THN.com, we don't care how many. What we care about is how many were important.

That's the premise behind Campbellnomics, a statistic that is unique to THN.com and updated every Tuesday. Campbellnomics measures the offensive contributions, with a weighted emphasis on goals over assists, players make in key situations of the game.

We're not interested in who scores the sixth goal in a 6-2 game, but we do want to give credit to players who score the goal that put the team up 3-2, or the player who scored the first goal of the game.

Here's how it works: Players are awarded one point for a goal (including the shootout) and a half point for an assist – hey, this isn't minor hockey here and goals are more important than assists – when a goal is scored in the following situations: the first goal of a game, a goal that puts a team in a tie or ahead in a game, a comeback goal, a game-winning goal and an overtime goal.

A new wrinkle on Campbellnomics this season is the comeback goal. A comeback goal can only be scored when a team is trailing by two or more goals and that goal has a direct effect on his team getting back into the game. The goal must be one of goals scored in succession that result in the game later being tied.

This system both recognizes big goals and weighs them more heavily. For example, if a player scores the all-important first goal of the game, he automatically receives two points, one for the first goal of the game and one for putting his team ahead. If a player scores the game-winner in overtime, he gets four points – one for the first goal of the game, one for putting his team ahead, one for the game-winner and one for an overtime goal.

Obviously, the Campbellnomics rankings are sometimes radically different than the NHL scoring race because of the emphasis on important goals. For example, Marc Savard and Sidney Crosby are in the top 10 in NHL scoring, but don't crack the top 20 in Campbellnomics. Conversely, Francois Beauchemin is tied for 193rd, but is in the top 20.

Campbellnomics

RANK

NHL RANK

PLAYER

TEAM

FIRST

AHEAD

TIED

COMEBACK

GAME-WINNER

OT

SO

TOTAL

G

A

G

A

G

A

G

A

G

A

G

A

1

3

Alexander Semin

Wash

2

1

4

4

1

3

1

1

1

1

1

15.5

2

10

Zach Parise

NJ

2

3

3

4

1

2

1

1

1

14.5

3

T4

Marian Hossa

Det

1

1

4

3

2

1

2

1

1

1

14

4

T23

Henrik Zetterberg

Det

3

2

3

3

1

1

2

1

1

13.5

2

Patrick Sharp

Chi

3

1

5

2

1

1

2

1

13.5

6

T13

Ryan Getzlaf

Ana

2

1

2

5

2

2

1

2

1

1

13

9

Tomas Vanek

Buf

1

2

3

2

2

1

3

1

13

8

22

Jeff Carter

Phi

1

4

1

2

1

2

2

12.5

9

T70

Slava Kozlov

Atl

3

4

1

1

1

1

1

1

11.5

10

35

Pavel Datsyuk

Det

1

1

3

2

1

1

1

1

2

10.5

T27

Nikolai Zherdev

NYR

1

2

2

5

1

1

2

1

1

10.5

1

Evgeni Malkin

Pit

3

3

4

3

1

1

1

10.5

T90

Dan Boyle

SJ

3

2

4

1

1

1

4

1

10.5

T155

Jonathan Toews

Chi

3

1

4

2

1

2

3

10.5

15

T193

Francois Beauchemin

Ana

2

3

1

1

2

1

1

10

T7

Corey Perry

Ana

4

5

3

1

1

1

1

10

T41

Antti Miettinen

Min

1

2

2

3

1

3

1

10

T44

Saku Koivu

Mtl

1

2

2

3

1

1

2

1

10

T56

Alexei Kovalev

Mtl

2

3

1

1

3

2

10

T44

Markus Naslund

NYR

2

2

2

2

1

3

1

1

10

40

Brad Boyes

StL

1

2

2

1

3

2

10

T4

Patrick Kane

Chi

1

1

3

3

1

2

1

2

10

Campbellnomics is updated Tuesdays only on thehockeynews.com. For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, Subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.